Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1887-04-15

out the working day. Toftburp, on or
binary summer days, is lively enough.
But who shall do justice to its feverish
liveliness, its delirious gayety, on bank
holiday How shall attempt to describe
first Monday in August at that attrac-
tive place, when every half hourly train
from London discharged its hundreds into
the already crowded streets. l was in
but poor spirits that day, it is true; but /
found some consolation in watching the
holiday pranks of my kind. From the
top of the west cliff as l leaned over the
rail gloomily observant, the whole piano.
rama of seething life was below me,
under blazing August sun.
"Alas! alas, my brothers" l said:
1.-THE happiness you seek so painfully does
not exist! How much wiser to lean here
on this railing, as l do, quietly, with your
pulse normal and own that life is a
mournful puzzle scarce worth the solv-
.ng!''
1t is pleasant is it not? to stand aloof
from the crowd, la Chide Harold, and
muse upon their folly thuss
l was in this frame of mind when my
last evening in Toftburn arrived. had
been in a very bad temper all day. In
expedition to Toftburn glen, three miles
away, with the Ridgways. We had gone
in a wagonette with some friends of
theirs recently come down to Toftburn.
q had supposed the Reds would he going
when | accepted the invitation.)
In exploring the glen, Miss Ridgway
talked of nothing but the fauna and
flora of the neighborhood. Miss Lotte
would linger belEnd the rest of the party
and look sentimental. And DIR. Ridgway
got in passion at lunch, and let the girls
have it straight, because, in taking an
enormous bite of his first sandwich. he
found to his sorrow that it had a triple
share of mustard.
Even the intellectual Eliza shook in her
shoes at the wrath in the Wears red face
and streaming eyes.
Returned from this unsought iaunt,
strolled along the beach. 1t was warm
August evening. The sun had set. but
the western sea beneath which he had
dipped his burning face in hopes to cool
it, was still all crimson; the eastern sea
was cold and silver gray. flowing onward,
onward to me as | stood and watched it,
a few bars of grey cloud lying above its
horizon. The sands were almost deserted.
The children and their nurses who formed
the chief beach population, were gone
away. The pier the parade, and the
aquarium claimed all the evening world
of Toftburn.
Round me were the sand heaps, towers,
and castles which the children had reared
so busily during the day, doomed to be
obliterated by the evening tide. Seated
at the foot of the cliff, in a quiet
spot, where the cliffs ran out at either
side and cut me off from all the
world, | gave way to melancholy
Suddenly, round the projecting cliffs to
my right, tall, slim figure in white ap-
peared and strolled slowly along the sands
by the margin of the sea, looking out
over the silvery expanse of water-my
beautiful, my beloved. my Ellie. who. l
feared, was never to be mine. Far out
in the shallow water / was also aware of
the prodigy, condescending to bend his
mighty soul to SO childish and human a
sport as wading and fishing with a large
net for possible marine monsters.
81 will not go to her, | said: Il will
leave her in peace. She does not guess
what loving eyes are watching her.
Darling, only tease you with my pres
ence. The love you did not want and
never guessed at shall not be confessed to
you-you would only be distressed. But
if l live century shall never live it
down. Oh, my little girl! if you could
have cared for me!-if l might even
have dared to tell you all you are to me!'
The slim white figure strolled along by
the margin of the evening sea.
Once she stood looking out to the
horizon, and then traced idly with the
point of her closed sunshade on the sand.
The prodigy was tagging behind, absorbed
in his net fishing, and she was waiting
for him. all unconscious of the gaze fol
lowing her every movement 80 intensely.
Her back was to me. And now she
was bending down, tracing with more
method in the tracing letters there,
it would seem. l was too far off even
to guess at what she was writing.
but why did sudden thrill
run through me as watched
that sunshade's point working so busilyi
Why did | rise, my recent resolve for
gotten, and with heart throbbing and ewes
staring-in fact, feeling like nothing but
a great humping heart and a great star
ing eye-approach silently even stealthily.
the spot where she stood?
She had completed it, whatever it was
she had written. She was looking at it
now. Quick quick! little foot was
already extended to erase it! Silently,
stealthily, still unguessed at l covered the
few yards that We're all now intervening
between u.s. 1t was a name she had
written there-a Christian name and sur
name. Whose? oh, whose? She was still
looking at them, thinking herself in per-
feet solitude. And now l had reached
her. l looked over her shoulder. md
the name in the sand-oh, joy! Joy! Joy
it was mine.
Ten minutes later l am walking along
the beach with my darling on my arm,
and she knows have loved her since first
l met her, and know that she was only
shy, not cold; and that her dear heart is
given me in exchange for my own.
Twilight is falling on Toftburn sea